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Olivia Chow hits Rob Ford hard in first Toronto mayoral speech

At her official campaign launch, the progressive ex-MP says the incumbent has been “failing at his job” of making crucial investments in the city, while pushing expensive transit.

Olivia Chow holds granddaughter Solace Campbell at the official launch of her Toronto mayoral campaign at St. Simon-the-Apostle Church on Thursday, in the St. James Town neighbourhood where she grew up.
(Carlos Osorio / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Sprinkled throughout her feel-good speech about families and working together, newly registered mayoral candidate Olivia Chow hit Rob Ford hard over and over — on his policies, on his record, and on his personal life.

“The current mayor’s disappointing leadership has let us down,” Chow told a packed house at St. Simon-the-Apostle Church on Thursday morning.

“He has failed to make the critical investments our city needs to stay competitive. He has failed to help businesses create jobs for so many people who are desperately looking.

The current mayor is failing at his job,” she said before a dramatic pause: “And he is no role model for my granddaughters. We deserve better.”

Many had wondered how the soft-spoken Chow would handle herself in a campaign set to be among the most divisive and dirty in Toronto’s recent history. In her official campaign kick-off speech, she answered that question.

Chow appeared cheerful in a bright yellow blazer, on a stage alongside a dozen smiling children as well as Torontonians of all colours and ages. But amidst the kumbaya backdrop, she was on the offensive.

“In the last four years, we’ve all paid more and more, and got less and less.”

She complained that while the TTC has never been more expensive, the service is far worse. People “waiting longer for buses” and then “packed like sardines” once inside.

“We’re told jobs are coming, but one out of 10 of our neighbours can’t find a job,” Chow said, taking a jab at Ford’s claim that unemployment has dropped off on his watch.

“This will take tough slogging, not easy slogans, to get our city back on track.”

Chow touted her record as a city councillor, when she “balanced budgets with Mayor Mel Lastman.” She highlighted her humble beginnings as a daughter to immigrants growing up in St. James Town. Her mother had been a teacher in Hong Kong, but “had to settle for being a maid” in Canada because she couldn’t find work otherwise.

“I can remember as a teenager wanting nothing more than to have a pair of hockey skates, because there was nothing more powerful, nothing more Canadian, than to be able to play hockey,” she said.

Except Chow’s family couldn’t afford them, so the “skates had to wait.”

“Those lessons — that you need to work hard for the things you want and that you can’t spend what you haven’t earned — have stayed with me my entire life.”

Even these anecdotes about her childhood seemed to be indirect jabs at the mayor — and John Tory.

City Councillor Pam McConnell connected the dots more overtly after Chow’s speech.

“She is not from an elite family. She is from a Toronto family,” McConnell said.

Policy-wise, Chow said she will be releasing a comprehensive platform in the coming weeks and months. Her website — oliviachow.ca — focuses on three policy issues: children, jobs and transit.

More than anything, Chow stuck to transit on her first day as a mayoral candidate.

In one politically risky move, Chow announced she would like to scrap subway expansion in Scarborough. If mayor, she would resurrect the light-rail strategy that Ford killed. Her campaign is framing the sensitive issue as a fiscally prudent move, which will cost less, deliver more and get finished quicker. Chow argued that since the studies for “above-ground” rail are already finished, shovels could be in the dirt immediately. A subway wouldn’t get started until 2019.

When it came to the downtown relief line, Chow said the city will get to it “eventually,” but she offered no further details. As for Porter Airlines’ expansion, Chow said she is opposed to it.

On Wednesday, Chow became the last of the expected major candidates to register. A proxy filed her paperwork on the same day she resigned her position in House of Commons as the representative for Trinity-Spadina.

Chow is the lone progressive of the five major contenders. At present, polls suggest a three-way race between Chow, Tory and the incumbent mayor.

At city hall, Ford was asked about Chow’s candidacy.

She’s a “tax and spend socialist,” Ford said, hammering Chow, as well as other candidates in the race, for opposing the Scarborough subway and proposing plans that he’s already working on.

Tory’s campaign sent out a news release Thursday afternoon criticizing Chow for trying to “re-argue a settled debate” when it came to the Scarborough subway. Tory has made building a “Yonge Street subway relief line” a priority in his campaign.

Tory’s official campaign launch will be held next Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Polish Combatants’ Hall.

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